Chapter 22
Ruth stood outside the glass door to the lobby finding it hard to bring herself to enter the building, the call had come out of nowhere, a woman claiming the 4-year-old girl her parents had adopted more than 10 years earlier was alive, now answers to decade-old questions were in the building in front of her, the door slide open and she stepped in.
"That's her," Ruth said, the picture showed a teenage girl with pale skin, dark hair, and light blue eyes, Ruth had been twelve the last time she saw Rachel but she could have easily picked the teenager out of a crowd, it was the eyes, shinning blue with innocent intelligence mixed with a dark presence behind them, it sent a chill down her spine. It was at that moment Ruth made a decision,
"Look before we go any further I need to tell you something" Batgirl and Robin waited silently for her to continue "I can't take her home with me" The two heroes looked at each other, it was clear neither had considered that she didn't plan on taking care of the girl,
"We're going to need a minute," Batgirl said motioning for Robin to follow her, the door slid shut behind them,
"We can't let Rachel meet her now," Barbara said "What do we tell her, you have a single living family member, oh by the way she doesn't want you"
"We can't tell her she has a living sister and not let them meet, that's not our choice to make" Dick argued,
"All we have to say is that it's not safe for Ruth, Rachel won't hesitate to do it to protect her," Barbara said,
"And when she figures out that we lied to her, what then?" Barbara considered this,
"Fine, but I'm still against them meeting" They reentered the room.
"Look I understand you don't want Rachel getting hurt, and I don't want that either" Ruth began "I will tell her, but I need to talk to her, she is my sister and I have to see her"
"Ok" Dick agreed "You can take her out away from the tower, get lunch, and spend a little time together before you leave" Ruth nodded
"Thank you."
Rachel and Ruth walked away from Titan Tower in silence, Rachel glanced at Ruth through the red lenses of her sunglasses, the memory of a young girl with brown hair and green eyes looking down at her appeared,
"No Rachel, that's not how you play" She whined.
"Rachel" Ruth's voice brought her back from the memory,
"Yes," She answered,
"I need to be upfront with you" Ruth paused "I can't take you home with me"
"What?" The same girl was now standing in an open doorway, the light from outside stinging Rachel's eyes,
"No Rachel, your not allowed to come with me," She said with the same whine as before,
"Rachel!" Rachel had stepped back towards the road, a car swerving to miss her as Ruth pulled her back to the sidewalk "Rachel, are you ok?" She asked
"I'm fine, I just don't understand" Rachel was now unsure of what she had expected, was Ruth supposed to open her home to a kid she hadn't seen in ten years?
"I'm sorry, Jessie and I just got married and we're not ready to take care of you" Rachel looked away wiping at her eyes to prevent tears from running down her face, for a second the red tint was gone, and Ruth saw her eyes, they were missing the darkness she had always noticed, instead they just looked like the eyes of a sad lost child.
"I'm still your sister, and I'll always be here for you ok?" Rachel swallowed the lump in her throat
"Ok," She said quietly. For the first time, Ruth noticed the small wooden cross strung around Rachel's neck,
"Are you a uh" She didn't have to finish the question,
"I don't know" Rachel's hand went around the small pendant,\
"That's ok" Ruth said "Mom always wore a silver 1, she'd be happy to see you wearing it" The image of a woman with brown hair and green eyes came to Rachel's mind. Rachel had been sitting on the floor and the woman had leaned down to talk to her, the silver cross hung loosely from her neck,
"Hi, Rachel I'm Alice, your gonna come stay with us, ok?" Rachel had been 4 for several months but had yet to talk so she just stared at the shiny silver object. She felt the womans arms around her, the room was dimmly lit by a hall light,
"It's ok Rachel" The woman's soft voice was comforting. Rachel remembered Ruth standing in front of her,
"Yeah" Was all she could muster,
"Let's go sit down" Ruth suggested.
They had found a table in a small cafe, when Rachel asked
"What happened?" Ruth took a moment before answering,
"A couple months after your mom died my parent's decided to take you in, I think it had something to do with our church, mom loved you, she took care of you night and day, from the moment they brought you home you were basically silent" She hesitated "At least for the first two weeks, 1 night you just started screaming, I had been asleep and was terrified, it sounded like something was attacking you, mom rushed to you and dad stopped by my room, when he and I got to your room mom was holding you, you were curled up in the corner when she found you. She took you to a doctor the next day but they didn't find anything, after that mom pretty much never let you out of her sight" Rachel's throat tightened as the image of a cloaked figure with jet black eyes looming over her bed appeared.
"You had just turned 5 when mom got really paranoid, she was convinced she was being followed, nobody took her seriously, they thought she was just tired and stressed" Ruth paused blinking back tears "And then she died and you went missing, police decided she must have had a mental break, killed you and than drove her car off a bridge, dad and I never believed that, we knew she wouldn't hurt you but we couldn't convince them of that, dad fought for them to look into your disappearance till he died, four years ago"
"I'm sorry" Rachel whispered choking back tears,
"Rachel, it's not your fault" Ruth stood and walked around the table placing her hand on Rachel's shoulder "Batgirl told me everything, I'm so sorry that we couldn't protect you" Rachel pressed her face into her chest, it was several minutes before Ruth pulled her away.
"Why don't you tell me about the Titan's" She brushed Rachel's hair out of her face,
"Ok" They sat back down and began talking about Rachel's life with the Titan's. Rachel was telling her about the other Titan's when she got to Kara,
"Kara's, well it's complicated" Rachel blushed and Ruth looked up from her salad,
"What do you mean?" She asked
"We're, kind of," Rachel sunk slightly in her seat and pretty much whispered the end of her sentence "Dating" Ruth's eye's left Rachel, she seemed to be trying to look at anything else,
"Uh, ok" Rachel could hear the disapproval in her voice,
"The others don't really know" Rachel began playing with the wooden cross while waiting for Ruth's response. Ruth quickly changed the subject and not long after they noticed it was getting late, they began their journey back to Titan Tower, Ruth stopped outside the door and offered Rachel a small piece of paper,
"Here, it's my phone number and email, if you need anything just let me know, ok?" Rachel accepted the paper and slid it into her pocket
"Thanks" Ruth pulled her into a short hug,
"I have to go Jessie got me a flight back to Star city but it leaves early" Ruth began to walk away,
"I love you, Ruth" She paused, turned
"You too Rachel."
Rachel sunk low into the warm tub of water, she felt numb after the days events,
"Hey" Kara stepped into the dimly lit room from the dark bedroom "Are you ok?" She asked
"I'm fine" Rachel peeked her mouth out of the water to answer before submerging again, Kara sat on the side of the tub,
"You want to talk about it?" She asked, Rachel shook her head "Ok, Barbara said you turned fifteen a week ago" Rachel barely reacted,
"Yeah" She said quietly,
"Did you know?" Kara asked,
"Yeah' Rachel said lightly nodding,
"Why didn't you tell us, We would have celebrated" Kara curled her toes on the cold tile's,
"15 years of fucking people's lives and captivity, hell of a thing to celebrate" Kara turned to face her,
"We all care about you, even if can't see it all the shit that's happened isn't your fault, you didn't ruin anyone's life" She laid the back of her hand against Rachels cheek and she leaned her head against it "We love you, and maybe you don't think there's something worth celebrating, but we do, so do it for us, ok?" Rachel nodded
"Ok" She rubbed at her eyes with her wet hand,
"Good cause I'm pretty sure the ice creams melting" Kara walked back into the bedroom and came back with a tub of Neapolitan Ice cream and two cans of root beer tucked under her arm. Rachel laughed as Kara sat back down on the edge of tub,
"Here" She held a spoonful of ice cream out for Rachel.
This chapter will be the end of part 1 of the this season, I will return to posting regularly on November 17th, but I will be posting a special alternate earth story around Halloween. I will continue tweaking the currently available chapter's to make them easier to read but won't post any new chapters to my main Titans story till the second half of the season starts in November with Teen Titans Season 1 Part 2: The Invasion.
Thanks for reading, if you want updates and reminders for when I post next, consider following me on Instagram @Fanwritefiction.